ncaa
Bobby Bowden talks faith, football at breakfast in Charleston
Mar 6th
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Bobby Bowden spent 57 years standing on the sidelines coaching football. Retirement is a different game.
The 80-year-old Bowden, who left Florida State after the Seminoles beat his former West Virginia program in the Gator Bowl on Jan. 1, has spent the last two months flying around the country and beyond “making talks,” as he phrased it Thursday morning in Charleston.
“Last Sunday I was in Brazil, and the Sunday before that I was in Hawaii, and that’s the way it’s been,” said Bowden, who spoke at the Louderback Leadership Prayer Breakfast at Christ Church United Methodist. “Travel, speak, everywhere. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and now West Virginia.”
In Bowden’s mind, there’s no reason to spend his life after coaching on the sidelines, too. Thursday’s speech was the first of two he scheduled in the state on the same day. He left Charleston for Morgantown, where he spoke at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes function in the evening. He was to meet with approximately 30 of his former Mountaineer players today.
Tennessee Vols stun No. 2 Kentucky
Feb 28th
The 19th-ranked Volunteers withstood a furious rally by the supremely talented Wildcats and scored the final nine points for a 74-65 Southeastern Conference victory.
Kentucky erased a 19-point lead in less than 12 minutes, tying the score on a DeMarcus Cousins slam with 2:10 left. But the Wildcats (27-2, 12-2) didn’t score again, thanks to a series of turnovers and bad shots forced by the scrappy Vols (21-7, 9-5).
“They’re a good team — a great team, really — but they’re not unbeatable, especially in our house,” said UT senior wing J.P. Prince, who scored six of his game-high 20 points in the final 94 seconds. “We’ve been through a lot this year, but we’re still standing, and we can still beat anybody. And we just showed that.”
Tennessee won’t be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but it has now beaten half the probable field of No. 1s. First it was Kansas, now it’s Kentucky. Both in Thompson-Boling Arena, both holding on late, both with the help of huge three-pointers from near the same spot on the court. Skylar McBee did the honors in the last minute against Kansas, Hopkinsville, Ky., native Scotty Hopson did it to the Wildcats.
Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin grounded in faith
Mar 24th
Here’s an article on Blake Griffin, the standout basketball player leading the Oklahoma Sooners in the NCAA basketball tournament.
The story talks about Blake being homeschooled in a Christian family, the faith he embraces, and the quiet bond he has with brother and teammate Taylor Griffin.
Homeschool became an alternative to what the Griffins view as an America less and less open to the presence of God in our lives.
“We’ve deviated (in America) from our past to where we are right now. Here’s a nation founded on the opportunity for freedom of religion, and every time you look around, there’s people saying God has to be taken out of this, out of this,” says father Tommy Griffin.
